PEOPLE AND CULTURE

YEAR IN REVIEW

Organizational Redesign

Organizational redesign is an important part of the broader transformation occurring within CBC/Radio-Canada. Following the executive level redesign announced in the summer of 2015, we have continued to challenge and change the Corporation’s organizational structure to ensure we are positioned to work effectively together to meet our future strategic needs. One of the major outcomes of this process was the amalgamation of our technology and infrastructure groups from across the organization to form Media Technology and Infrastructure Services (MTIS). This component touches every element of work at the public broadcaster as they collaborate with their media partners to deliver great Canadian content. An anticipated result of this decision will be to bring a more effective, more coordinated approach to all areas of the Corporations’ media technology and infrastructure. This is just one example of how we are changing the way we operate, reducing our costs and streamlining our decision-making processes.

Strengthening a Culture of Respect

CBC/Radio-Canada has devoted considerable energy towards implementing the recommendations that came out of Janice Rubin’s report from April 16, 2015, with the goal of building a workplace we can all be proud of. Our action plan this year consisted of five key areas:

• Training – 98% of all managers completed our mandatory online training on bullying, harassment and workplace violence. This was followed by a second mandatory module on bullying and harassment for every CBC/Radio-Canada employee, with target completion as of the end of June 2016.
• Surveys and spot audits – As part of our new partnership with Gallup, we fielded a new employee engagement survey with additional questions relating to ethics and well-being. A 52% response rate ensured CBC/Radio-Canada has meaningful data to act on and to better-drive business performance. A second survey is planned for October 2016.
• Reporting channels and support – We launched a new, external, confidential bullying and harassment employee helpline in 2015, ensuring psychological and emotional support and counselling, as well as information relating to our various policies and processes, is available to all employees. An anonymous ethics reporting hotline and case management system will also be operational by the summer of 2016.
• Policy renewal – We updated our Policy on Learning & Development and Performance to ensure that conduct and behaviour are addressed in the context of performance management and development. In addition, we completed a review and revision of our conduct and ethics policies, and will be integrating the findings into the new policy framework.
• Workplace investigation and data – We established a new, confidential methodology to track and report on complaints and investigations; we also ensured that all People and Culture employees received basic training on investigations.

We will continue to build on these successes and work with the unions to ensure that our culture is one where respect thrives and unacceptable behaviour is dealt with swiftly and appropriately when it occurs.

Values & Ethics Commissioner

A new Values and Ethics Commissioner position was created and announced in May. This person will provide a source of guidance and support to employees, and will act as the first point of contact for all questions and concerns regarding values and ethics from employees, and also from members of the public. It is expected that the position will be filled by or around the fall of 2016.

Digital Skills Training

As of June 2016, more than 1,200 people across the Corporation have been training to develop new digital skills, while over 650 employees participated in business skills training to help them support the transformation. Looking ahead, we will maintain our momentum to train people for this new digital world, train leaders to even better support their teams and continue building a strong foundation of business skills across the Corporation. We will also continue working to ensure employees have modern work environments, with the right tools and technology that help them do their best.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Our employees continue to receive support through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which offers a variety of services, including confidential counselling, critical incident workplace support and individual wellness initiatives in our locations across the country. Our year-end EAP utilization rate was 22.7 % (up from 18.8% the previous year), and 1,693 cases, including employees, retirees and family members (up from 1,598 in 2014-2015), demonstrating the continued relevance of the program.

Inclusion and Diversity

CBC/Radio-Canada is continuously evolving to reflect the changing faces and voices of our country and to meet the needs of a diverse audience. We released our 2015-2018 Inclusion and Diversity Plan, which is aligned with Strategy 2020 to help us better reflect Canada’s diversity in our workforce and programming, and to enhance opportunities for partnerships with more Canadians.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission conducted an audit on employment equity. It noted there is still work to do to ensure our workforce is more reflective of our audience; however, it acknowledged that our organization has become more diverse over time. In 2015-2016, we also introduced a new metric to track on a quarterly basis the diversity of external new hires in comparison with the Canadian labour force availability. It showed progress by the end of the year.

Workforce Adjustments

In June 2014, we announced our strategic plan and its reduction impact on the workforce of between 1,000 and 1,500 positions. While the implementation is not completed, through hard work, careful management and conversations with our unions, the maximum number of reductions is now forecast to be approximately 1,150 FTEs. To date about 40% of the FTEs eliminated have been through attrition.

In terms of hiring, we have already hired close to 150 people to help support our strategy, and we are planning on hiring at least another 300 in the next years to improve our digital skills.

Labour Relations and Talent Agreements

In our second and third quarterly reports, we provided updates on the new French Services union structure. Moving forward, we are open to constructive dialog with the Association des réalisateurs (AR) and the Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada (SCRC), and will work to promote discussions that help us reach new collective agreements that are good for not only our organization and employees, but for our audience as well. Pursuant to the provisions of the Canada Labour Code, the parties were given the right to exercise a strike or lockout as
of May 15, 2016. The right being granted does not bind the parties into exercising it.

As part of our ongoing “living” agreement with the Canadian Media Guild, the Corporation and the union will convene in the summer of 2016 to address any areas of the agreement that require clarification or update.

Negotiations began in April 2016 with the Association of Professionals and Supervisors (APS), as their current agreement expires in June 2016, and are also ongoing with the Union des artistes (UDA) and ACTRA. An agreement was reached with the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) to extend the current collective agreement for a short period.

In French Services, a joint committee between the Human Resources team and the SCRC was created to ensure discussions between the parties on subjects not related to labour relations, but rather to the business environment; the committee has met twice to date and the tone has been cordial.

Executive Changes

• In April 2015, Judith Purves joined CBC/Radio-Canada as Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer;
• In May, Sylvie Gadoury became the Vice-President, Legal Services, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary;
• In June, Steven Guiton was named the Executive Vice-President of the corporation’s newest media component, Media Technology and Infrastructure Services (MTIS), which also includes the Real Estate portfolio;
• Bill Chambers announced in July his departure effective at the end of August as Vice-President, Strategy & Public Affairs, and he was replaced in the interim by Marco Dubé, Regional Director of Radio-Canada Ottawa-Outaouais. Alex Johnston joined us in February 2016 as the Vice-President of Strategy and Public Affairs;
• In August 2015, Josée Girard joined as the Vice-President of People and Culture; and
• In June 2016, Louis Lalande announced that he is retiring as Executive Vice-President of French Services, effective the end of December 2016. A recruitment process was launched immediately with the goal of having his successor in place by the end of the year.

STRATEGY 2020 PERFORMANCE METRICS

 

 

⁽¹⁾ Source: Gallup Consulting, Dialogue 2015 Survey. This is the per cent of employees who are proud to be associated with CBC/Radio-Canada. This is measured as the per cent who respond 4 to 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 in a representative survey of employees. The last employee survey was conducted in 2012, so the 2015-2016 target could not be set last March.

⁽²⁾ This metric is made up of three groups: Aboriginal Peoples, persons with disabilities and visible minorities. It is calculated as a per cent of new external hires for positions of 13 weeks or more.